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There was no lack of Hollywood celebs on TIFF’s red carpet, but the notable absence of one in particular brought a note of sadness to an otherwise wildly upbeat ritual. The missing person was James Gandolfini, whose sudden death in June, while on vacation in Rome, pre-empted the tumultuous welcome his Toronto fans would have given him at the premiere of Enough Said.

According to Nicole Holofcener, who wrote and directed Enough Said — opening in Canadian cities on Friday, Sept. 27 — Gandolfini had completed the sound mix for the movie shortly before he died. But she was still in the editing room fine tuning the movie.

“I had to watch it over and over again after he died,” she explained during a Q&A with the audience after a TIFF screening. “It sucked.”

During an interview later the same day, Holofcener revealed that Gandolfini wasn’t her first choice for the role.

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“I wrote it with Louis CK in mind,” she explained.

So why didn’t the star and creator of the cable comedy series Louie get the role of Albert, the overweight and clumsy but lovable divorcé played by Gandolfini?

That turned out to be a lucky break, because Gandolfini shines in every scene he’s in, creating a definitive portrait of a flawed but delightfully honest middle-aged guy who manages to do a lot of things wrong but never stops trying to overcome his failures. And when Albert discovers that he has been deceived by his new girlfriend, Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), his quiet expression of pain provides the most memorable drama in a movie some might erroneously describe as a “chick film.”

Gandolfini’s performance is a striking demonstration that there was a lot more in this talented actor’s range than his star-making role as Tony Soprano.

According to Holofcener, he was also a complicated man who, not unlike the character he plays in the film, was plagued by insecurity.

“He took the part very seriously, but he was not confident with his comedy challenge. He had the feeling he had to match wits with Julia.”

To her credit, Holofcener managed to create a relaxed atmosphere on the set, encouraging Gandolfini to play the role his way rather than in the style of his co-star.

Holofcener, who grew up in New York but lives in Los Angeles, wrote the script drawing from the experiences of friends and acquaintances as middle-aged empty nesters hoping to find new romantic partners. Before becoming one of the few women to break through as a writer-director in independent film, she directed episodes of hit cable TV series Sex and the City and Six Feet Under.

Eva, the central character in Enough Said, is a divorced massage therapist who faces the imminent departure of her college-bound daughter. One night at a party, she meets Albert, an affable TV archivist who is also divorced and also has a college-bound daughter. Their romance progresses, but Eva’s insecurity leads her to behave in a way that threatens to doom the relationship.

Ultimately, the question for the characters, the audience and the filmmakers themselves was whether the relationship between Albert and Eva was beyond repair. With the end of the shoot looming, the writer-director and her actors did a lot of discussing and improvising before coming up with an ending that felt just right.

But the news of Gandolfini’s death added a tragic subtext to a movie that was otherwise in the zone of funny/sad.

“It was horrible,” Holofcener recalled during TIFF. “I had seen him a couple of weeks before he died. I’m still shocked. And I can’t believe he isn’t going to be here.”

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